


First Do No Harm

by Darkwood_Princess



Category: Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Gen, hold on to your hats and capes, medicine and superheroes, this is going to be a wild ride
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-03-12
Packaged: 2018-10-02 23:52:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10230869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkwood_Princess/pseuds/Darkwood_Princess
Summary: Upholding her oath would be a lot easier if she didn't work for Earth's Mightiest Medical Miscreants.OrThe Avengers hire a physician and nothing in her life has prepared her for this crazy chaos.





	

**Author's Note:**

> I had a particularly weird dream recently, where I was attempting to explain lung physiology to the Winter Soldier. Yeah, that went about as well as one would think it could. But then a good friend of mine was like, ‘that would make a good fic’, so here we are. XD I’ve not seen a lot of Marvel, so please forgive any inaccuracies. This is set some time after the Avengers and will span several movies as I work my way through the MCU.

The enormous glass and steel building before her is more than vaguely spectacular and, as she gathers her wits about her, newly graduated Dr. Jamela Karim remembers just what exactly brought her to this point in her life, minutes away from starting her medical career as the physician to the World’s Mightiest Medical Miscreants, given the injuries of superheroes and gods.

_Four Years Ago_

Medical exams were one of those nightmares that just kept repeating, without the grace of looking sheepish when they knocked again and sent the carefully prepared student into a frenzy of caffeination and exhaustion. Jamela Karim had learned quickly in the first few weeks that choosing medicine as a career pretty much confirmed that she was secretly a masochist, determined to spend the following years of her life in a science dedicated haze. Despite the heavy pace, she often found she loved it nonetheless, especially when after hours of studying, a concept simply clicked, leaving her better prepared to follow her life’s goal of helping those in need.

And so she found herself staying up late at the campus library, studying herself senseless over the renal system and reviewing practice patient notes, when the latest aliens to think Earth was a juicy target attacked her admittedly small hometown.  The first thwack against the window bought none of the tired student’s attention. The second thwack followed with much the same reaction as the first. When the alien, an odd combination of snake creature and platypus, slammed through the wide glass panes of the third floor windows, Jamela jolted from her studying zone and dove behind her table. It offered little protection from the creature that was scanning the room carefully, but something was better than nothing.

She watched with a special sort of horror as the creature shot acid at her, disintegrating her laptop like hot butter on a skillet but missing her person by a wide swath. Hissing menacingly it advanced on her, oddly mismatched platypus tail swiping aside chairs and tables with ease.  Glowing red eyes assessed her, taking in the rumpled university hoodie and hastily thrown up ponytail, the now spilled thermos of tea and the battered cell phone now tossed several feet away as she scrambled to evade its path. For a moment everything froze, as the creature waited for its prey’s reaction.  

Now, dear readers, a moment if you please. Were you to run into an alien at an ungodly hour of the night after studying for what feels like an eternity, what would your reaction be? Most likely you would be scared. Perhaps you would be paralyzed or simply allow your sympathetic nervous system to jet you out of the room at the fastest speed your two legs can reach. What does our noble protagonist do?

She dove for her copy of Gray’s Anatomy and chucked it as hard as she could at _Mr. Snek-In-The-Library_. 

For the record, the alien was not fazed by a simple textbook, a Lisa Frank pencil case, or, as the rapidly retreating Med Student discovered, her superhero plastered lunchbox.  Backed up against a wall and realizing with a belated sort of hysteria that explaining why she wasn’t able to turn in her practice patient notes was going to be hilarious if she doubtfully lived to see tomorrow, Jamela hoped that at least this wouldn’t hurt too much.

The shield that slammed into the creature, ricocheting off his thickly plated skull was as unexpected as the repulsor blast that knocked the alien with a solid thwack into the nearby acid stained table. Barely able to believe this last minute reprieve, Jamela watched with shock as two very familiar men chased down the creature, making sure that it was truly down for the count and calling it in as, “The forty sixth one on the east coast and could someone please get Foster to shut down her damn portal already.” Staring with wide eyes at her saviors, our makeshift heroine spouted the first thing that came to mind.

“Holy Moly, it’s Captain America and Iron Man!” She heard a distinct chuckle as they turned to look at her, just as her legs decided that they’d had just enough, thank you very much, and she slid to the floor with a thump.

“You okay kid? Besides your outdated slang?” Tony Stark’s concerned sarcasm was just as surreal as the passed out alien near her and Jamela let out a weak laugh that had both men focusing on her more closely.  The creature made a movement that was quickly aborted as Cap smacked it in the head with his shield a little harder.

“My momma would have my hide if I cursed. Even if I was in the middle of an alien invasion. It’s a southern thing.”  If a robotic suit could raise an eyebrow, she was sure that the billionaire in front of her would be giving her the Spock brow.  What could she say, old habits die hard.

If someone had told her that morning as she bid her siblings goodbye and hugged her greying dog that she was going to meet two icons of the superhero world, she would have laughed at them and asked what they were smoking. Now that said heroes were staring at her, trying to see if she most likely had brain damage from her encounter with _I-Most-Definitely-Don’t-Come-In-Peace_ over in the corner, she wondered if it was possible for her evening to get even stranger.  

“I think she’d forgive you, given the circumstances. ” Captain Rogers extended a hand towards her, pulling her to her feet. “How did you hold off the creature, ma’am, if you don’t mind my asking?”

 The realization that her textbook, pencil case, and lunch box were quite probably beyond repair, had her jolting across the room. “I threw this at them. I figured I ought to get something out of what I paid for this textbook.” She held up the dented and slightly melted lunchbox.  “It’s too bad this thing wasn’t made to resist Snake Platypi from the Rod Serling Dimension.”

“I’m not sure I understand.” Cap’s face scrunched up in confusion as the reference went over his head and Iron Man tried not to laugh. Judging from the look of resignation on Rogers’ face, it must have been a fairly often occurrence, Tony laughing at his lack of pop culture.

Jamela focused a little clearer on the Star Spangled Man with a Plan. “It’s a Twilight Zone reference. And this is a very sad medical textbook for a very sad medical student.” Her copy was definitely done. “There goes an investment.”

“Let me get this straight. Your first instinct when an alien slammed through the window was to throw a textbook at it?” Stark, who had gone back to examining the alien, stopped looking at it and was now examining her as if she was something just as interesting.

“They iced my laptop!” She indicated the pile of goo that had slammed through the table with an indignation often reserved for malfunctioning so-called cars and the cafeteria’s latest attempt at curry.

“They have acid powers.” Stark deadpanned in response.

“It was slang! And I didn’t just throw my textbook. That thing killed my pencil case and my lunchbox!”

Stark was laughing harder at her and even Rogers was smiling slightly, as if her actions were the funniest thing they’d seen all evening, and Jamela found herself holding back a laugh herself. Now that she was no longer in mortal danger, the humor of the situation hit her too. The movement was over quickly, as Rogers received a transmission and turned to his teammate.

“Stark, we have to go, Barton’s just called in another alien one state over and it’s giving him trouble.” Rogers turned to his companion who was hauling the invader up, ready to drag him out of the window they’d made their entrance through. “ And you,” he gestures to Jamela, staring mournfully at her once sparkly and functional pencil case, “the next time an alien attempts to ruin a study session, please get out of the building. Your life is more important than an exam.” The stern tone is belied by the twinkle in his eye and Jamela snapped a sloppy salute at him.

“Look on the bright side kid, this’ll make one hell of a story tomorrow.” The sound of arriving police and other rescue services accompanies Stark’s parting words, and as the two make their escape to a waiting vehicle outside, Jamela can only stare after them, wondering _what just happened_ and _is it me, or is Iron Man shorter in person?_

She was in luck the next day, as her story of alien invasion is corroborated by the news and the emergency crews, and her professors give her leave to get her notes and life together long enough to prepare for her upcoming exams.

When the new textbook, a fully functional pencil case with the stars and stripes emblazoned on it, and a bright, shiny Starkbook appears on her doorstep soon after, Jamela doesn’t miss the dedication in the book’s inside cover, written in beautiful cursive and blocky print.

_To the crazy girl who took on an alien invasion with nothing but the stuff around her. If you need a job after you graduate, please contact this number. We can always use someone willing to throw the book at people more powerful than they are. – Tony Stark and Steve Rogers_

Her parents wonder why their daughter takes such a liking to a book she’d professed hatred for before, but chalk it up to a near death experience while her little brothers mess with the laptop and her sister delights in the pencil case.

_The Present_

The battered book is stowed in her bag as she steps into the Tower, ready to begin her new career with both trepidation and excitement.

When Thor slams through the floor in front of her, cracks spiraling outward from the Asgardian’s landing as the villain of the week cackles and floats through the hole, she smiles and does not turn back.

(She does duck for cover though.)


End file.
